NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION

Diploma in Education (Year 2)July 2002 Intake

ETL 201 Selected History Topics for Primary Social Studies

Assignment:Life of a Chinese woman throughout the years 1941-1945

Name:Rita Gupta

Matric No :020312D24

Tutor: Dr Ang Cheng Guan

Day&Time:Monday 12.30-2.30pm

18TH OCTOBER 2003

LIFE OF A CHINESE WOMAN FROM THE YEARS 1941-1945

The Japanese Occupation lasted for 3 and a half years. Till

today, the older Singaporeans still vividly remember the darkest

period of their lives. Untold millions suffered throughout the war

until August 1945 brought the Japanese surrender and release.

I had the opportunity to interview Oh Choo Neo , a Straits born

Chinese woman for this oral history project. This essay depicts the

personal memory of Oh Choo Neo throughout the years 1941 to

1945. Her account of these years is similar to historical information

on the same period that is presently available as published historical

records. The major highlight will be the changes in her life

throughout these years and the significant events that she vividly

remembers till today.

Oh Choo Neo was a young girl of 17 in 1941. She was born in

a well-to-do family. Her father sold black silk and they could easily

afford luxuries and was living a life of comfort in their wooden-type

bungalow. Most of the straits-born Chinese were educated in English

and had a higher standard of living than the other Chinese

community. At that time, Singapore was growing in importance as a

port and trading centre. Singapore was the most important port in

SEA and the 7th largest port in the world and the booms in tin and

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rubber in Malaya and the discovery of oil in Borneo and Indonesia

enabled Singapore to

grow and prosper.1

Singapore was enjoying good economy. Thus there were a

number of people who were rich, Oh Choo Neo’s family being one of

them.

Madam Oh was not concerned with politics at that time, as

she was still young. She was not the only one. Majority viewed the

political affairs of Malay and Singapore with little interest because

most were illiterate. However one main issue did capture their

interest. That was the Japanese invasion of China in 1937. Singapore

communists’ activists had organised fund-relief activities to aid

china’s war effort. Madam Oh had remembered some of these

activities taking place in the streets. The activities involved boycotts

of Japanese goods, demonstrations, donations, sales of flags and

paper flowers and events such as concerts and variety shows. 2

Madam Oh remembered that her own brother-in-law had donated

his wedding ring in aid of China.

Although she was not interested in political affairs, she did

remember how the radio had announced that Singapore was

impregnable. Alarmed at the Japanese aggression against China in

the 1930’s, the British built a Naval Base in Singapore. The base was

2

(1) Jim Baker, Crossroads, A popular history of Malaysia and Singapore, 1999, Times International, pg 204)

(2) Tan Beng Luan, Irene Quah, The Japanese Occupation 1942 –1945, 1996, Times Edition

finished in 1938, and so Singapore was widely thought to be

impregnable.

The base, completed in 1941 and defended by artillery,

searchlights, and the newly built nearby Tengah Airfield, caused

Singapore to be ballyhooed in the press as the "Gibralter of the

East." The floating dock, 275 meters long, was the third largest in

the world and could hold 60,000 workers. The base also contained

dry docks, giant cranes, machine shops; and underground storage

for water, fuel, and ammunition. A self-contained town on the base

was built to house 12,000 Asian workers, with cinemas, hospitals,

churches, and seventeen soccer fields. Above-ground tanks held

enough fuel for the entire British navy for six months. The only thing

the giant naval fortress lacked was warships. 3

However, the impregnable fortress ‘shook’ when the first

bomb was dropped in Singapore. Madam Oh had remembered that

the bomb dropped at around 4 am on December 8 1941. It was the

day of her ‘O’ level examination. The bomb was dropped in town

and the second one closer to her home. War had begun.

The British then surrendered on Feb 15 1942. The next 10 to

20 days were chaotic everywhere. There was widespread

lawlessness and looting and panic. Madam Oh recalled how the

Japanese went to Chinese houses and took away the men.

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(3) http://www.1upinfo.com/country-guide-study/singapore/singapore25.html

No one ever came back. The Japanese had resented the local

Chinese as Japan and China had been enemies for years. The

Japanese visited homes in random to forage for supplies and

amenities. The soldiers helped themselves to anything that they

liked. 4

The atrocities committed by Japanese include massacre,

raping and the cruelest tortures. The women especially had to hide

themselves to being found and raped by the Japanese. They had

very short haircuts to pass themselves as boys. Madam Oh herself

was almost a victim. She had managed to escape but unfortunately,

her 14-year-old cousin and sister-in-law was not as lucky. The

Japanese raped them.

Madam Oh has also witnessed the Japanese rounding up

Chinese men with the pretext of giving them jobs. However this

could not be verified with historical records. What could be verified

is that men were ordered to register themselves. This was called the

Sook Ching.5 Most people were picked up for questioning and loaded

into lorries and taken to killing grounds where they were machine-

gunned and bayoneted. Many people had disappeared without a

trace.

Life became very hard for Madam Oh and her family then.

They plunged into poverty. They had to queue up for everything.

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(4) NI Low, When Singapore was Syonan-To ,1995, Times international, pg 3(5) Tan Beng Luan, Irene Quah, The Japanese Occupation 1942 –1945, 1996, Times Edition

Food shortages were the main feature of life during these

darkest years of their life. It occurred because imports of food had

been cut off by the ending of Singapore’s entrepot trade.6 Rationing

was introduced for rice and grains. The Japanese had seized all

stocks of rice, sugar, salt, flour and milk. They were put under the

control of Kumiais. However these was not enough. Most people

turned to land cultivation growing. People drew tapiocas as an

additional source of food. Madam Oh described the bread to be as

hard as stone and noodles were like rubber. During the Japanese

occupation, noodles were not made of rubber. They looked like

plastic and transparent when made and was very tough.7

After settling down, to restore law and order, the Japanese

military police or Kempetai was formed. The Kempetai would

behead looters they caught and display the heads for public

viewing. Due to fear, the streets were peaceful as they were no

crimes taking place. 8

There was also shortage of medicine and other medical supplies

during the occupation years. Madam Oh had gotten pregnant after

her marriage in March 1945. She suffered from beriberi when she

was pregnant. The lack of medical supplies was supported by

historical

5

(6) Jim Baker, Crossroads,A popular history of Malaysia and Singapore, 1999, Times International)(7) Tan Beng Luan, Irene Quah, The Japanese Occupation 1942 –1945, 1996, Times Edition(8) Tan Beng Luan, Irene Quah, The Japanese Occupation 1942 –1945, 1996, Times Edition

records. 9

People also turned to black market for additional income.

Madam Oh was the sold-breadwinner in her family after her father

lost his shop. She worked as an assistant nurse in a hospital despite

not being trained in nursing. She had plenty of encounters with the

Japanese during her days in he hospital. She describes them then as

being nice people, which was quite a contrary, to what most

historical records wrote. Then she changed her job to become a

salesgirl in a Japanese company that deals with imports and

distribution. That was when she became involved in the black

market. She tampered with the sales record after selling the goods

to the Japanese first. She recorded a higher sales figure than the

actual case, and then took the goods to the black-market to sell.

She could sell the goods at 10 times the original price. During that

time she described that almost everyone did black-marketing for

livelihood despite the heavy penalties associated with it.

The surrender of the Japanese was indeed a relied for

everyone. It marked the end of suffering for many people. Just like

everyone else, madam Oh was glad to have the British back.

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(9) Paul H Kratoska, The Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1998, C Hurst & Co

Conclusion

I am part of the younger generation of Singapore who had grown up in a safe and secure environment and will not be able to comprehend and feel the hardships of war. I will also never understand the meaning of hardships, starvation and torture. This essay has been an enriching one as I had the opportunity to talk to a person who had gone through war and survived. Madam Oh concluded our interview with her own personal thoughts. “ War is not good as the innocents suffer. We must appreciate simple things that we have, like food. I always tell my grandchildren not to waste food. We must also treasure most importantly, peace. Don’t take peace for granted, especially for the young people who have never been through war. And now when we hear other countries having war, we must help them.”

References

(1) Jim Baker, Crossroads, A popular history of Malaysia and Singapore, 1999, Times International, pg 204)

(2) Tan Beng Luan, Irene Quah, The Japanese Occupation 1942 –1945, 1996, Times Edition

(3) NI Low, When Singapore was Syonan-To ,1995, Times international, pg 3

(4) Paul H Kratoska, The Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1998, C Hurst & Co

(5) Lim Pui Huen, Diana Wong, War and Memory In Malaysia & Singapore,2000, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies

(6) http://www.1upinfo.com/country-guide-study/singapore/singapore25.html(Retrieved on 16th October 2003)

(7) Rita Gupta, Transcript for the Oral Interview Project, 2003

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APPENDIX

Profile of The Interviewee

Name of Interviewee: Oh Choo NeoAge: 79

Date of Birth: 26 July 1924Place of Birth: Singapore

Race: Straits-Born ChineseDialect Group: Hokkien

Occupation: Retired Teacher

Transcript For the Oral Interview Project

Prior to Japanese Invasion of Singapore:

Before the Japanese Invasion, how old were you? What were you and your family doing?I was 17 or 18. I was a student. And I had just finished my ‘O” Levels. Because the invasion happened during my ‘O’ levels, my results didn’t come back until after the war. My father had a shop selling black silk. My mother was a housewife.

Where were you staying before the Japanese invaded Singapore? Who were you staying with?I was staying in Geylang in a wooden type bungalow. I was staying together with my parents, siblings and sister-in-law.

Before the Japanese came to Singapore, how did you and your family feel about the Japanese invasion and conquer of the other countries?

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No lah, I was young. My family and I did not bother about it. My father was Chinese-educated and my mother was illiterate. We were not concerned. But I saw and heard anti-activities taking place in the market. There was one man who was slashed because he was involved in some Japanese activities. Another fellow had his ears cut off. But these cases were very, very rare. People also raised funds to help the China victims. There was a choir team that went round singing. I remember my brother-in-law donated his wedding ring. At that time, I felt mild resistance towards the Japanese.

At that point of time, did you think the Japanese would ever invade and conquer Singapore? Why?I don’t know, I was so young. I remember the newspapers always said that Singapore was impregnable. I still remember the word “impregnable”. The British soldiers were all dancing away, having a good time.

Japanese Invasion of Singapore:

Can you describe your experience when you knew that Singapore was first attacked?

I remember clearly it was Dec 8 when the Japanese dropped the first bomb. It was 4 am. That was the day of my exam. The bomb was dropped in town so I wasn’t affected. But another bomb was dropped. This was closer to my place. My house shook. No one was killed. It just made a small hole. Must be a small bomb.

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What did you and your family do during the attack? We stocked up food and built an air-raid shelter using sandbags. My house was not on the ground. It was built on 6 feet poles so we placed sandbags all around. Whenever, we hear the siren, we quickly ran there.

Japanese Occupation of Singapore:

How did you know about the surrender of the British to the Japanese? How did you and your family feel?We got the news of the British surrender through word of mouth. We didn’t panic at first. But when we heard that the Japanese had been pulling the Chinese out of their home, we started to fear. Throughout the Occupation, we secretly hoped for the British to come back and save us.

What was your memory of the first few days of the Japanese Occupation?

There was no law and order in the first 10, 20 days. There was chaos everywhere so we lived in fear not knowing what would happen next. The Japanese went to the Chinese houses and drove all the men folks out and asked them to go to the school field or Padang. My Math teacher and some of my church friends were taken away, never returned. They’re all educated people. We bought sugar, rice, and packed everything. We thought that the Japanese would come and take us away but thank god nothing happened. We were very lucky; they didn’t come to our house to check. It might be because we lived in a Malay area, or they just picked out houses at random to check. During the daytime, I heard they got people to catch chickens and ducks and asked people to cook them. The Japanese then went into their house and took what they liked.

During the Japanese Occupation, how did life become different?

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A lot changed. My auntie and her family came to stay with us after the Geylang English school, which was near their place, exploded. Don’t know why it exploded. You have to queue up for everything. Don’t have any shop selling things anymore. Rice, sugar was rationed so we had to queue. It was very hard to get food. Bread was like stone and mee was tough like rubber. Rice was scarce. Luckily, my boyfriend worked in a bread department. He didn’t need to queue up and could bring the bread back to us. We grew tapioca ourselves too, as there was not enough food. Meat was very expensive, so we rarely ate them. But we still could get fish or chicken at times, as we could get them more easily. There was no dried goods, like dried anchovies, in Singapore. Could only find it in Johor.Cloth is also very hard to get then. When the Japanese boss gave us a piece of cloth, we were happy like what.

And we had charcoal taxi, and even for the trolley buses, we had to queue. Anyway, I cycled to work as it saved money. I cycled alone to work. I found the streets peaceful, you cannot find any crimes. The Japanese did not tolerate stealing and robbing. If caught by the Japanese, you die ah! They will bring you to the kempetai at YMCA, they would torture and kill you!

Can you also tell us how did your personal life become different?During those lawless days, we wore clothes with patterns something like striped pyjamas, very shabby. And I cut my hair really short. Most girls did that so Japanese would think we were boys. I also hid my valuable. My mother and I buried them all in the ground.I already had a boyfriend at that time, now my husband lah. We were courting for 5 or 6 years. I didn’t want to get married at first. But I thought the Japanese wouldn’t disturb me if I were married. So I married in March 1945 and British came back in August 1945. That was towards the end of war but how was I supposed to know when it

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would end, right. I shouldn’t have gotten married. I was only 21 or 22. Then I got pregnant. And I never think ah. There were no medical facilities at that time, and I got pregnant.

How was your livelihood?My first job was as an assistant nurse. I don’t know nursing but I was still asked to assist the qualified nurse. While I was working, I went to a Japanese school to learn Japanese language. It was not compulsory. I just wanted to learn something for myself. I can speak Japanese. I got a badge and also an increment in pay. Then I changed my job to become a salesgirl in a Japanese company that deals with imports and distribution. I can’t remember the name of the company. There was a lot of embezzlement. We had to sell the goods to the Japanese first, and we did hanky-panky with the sales record. We recorded a higher sales figure than the actual case, and we took the goods to the black-market to sell. Can sell 10 times the original price! Almost everyone do black-marketing for his livelihood. Not only the locals sell, Japanese do that too. They bought one or two bottles of alcohol very cheaply, and re-sell them in the black-market. You see, sometimes war turns people’s fortune around. But I was very afraid to get caught. One day, one Japanese soldier caught me, you know. I was called to the head-office. Don’t know what would happen. Luckily, a Japanese spoke up for me. I don’t know what was said, and they let me off. Now I talk about it, I get frightened. You know, they could bring you to YMCA for stealing. So my family lived on my black-marketing. I also did other sideline like selling cakes.

So what did your family members do for a living?Dad couldn’t continue with his shop so no livelihood. The brother of mine was so spoilt, didn’t do any work. My mum set up a stall selling oil and other provisions. My mother would also sell her valuables in the black-market to get some extra money. There were a lot of

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people selling food. There were also gambling openly in the market. The gambling was like people placing bets and they get beautiful girls to roll the dice. That’s how people pass their time. Through gambling and eating.

Did you have any unpleasant encounter with a Japanese soldier?

Ya, it was 10 days after the Japanese conquered Singapore. A cousin of mine was playing the gramophone. It was too loud and it attracted 3 Japanese soldiers. They came twice. Once they only checked under the beds and did inspection and went off. Then they came the second time. They drove the ladies to one corner and the men to another corner. I was with my cousins. One guard pointed his gun at me. My mum pulled me back and he slapped my mum. I was pulled away. As I was to know later, they pulled my cousin and sister-in-law also. I was pulled into the kitchen. Actually when the Japanese came to Singapore, we were all scared about the rape, one day, I would pray 10 times. I went to the ceiling to hide during the daytime and only came out at night. But that day, I had no fear at all. I just knelt down and prayed “Oh god, please have mercy on me” many times. He looked at me and pointed the bayonet at me but I was not frightened. He did not push me or anything. He pulled me up. I was still praying and saying out “Oh god, please have mercy on me”. He was standing a distance from me so I quickly unlatched the door and ran out to a plantation. He didn’t chase after me because it was nighttime, very dark. I went to my Malay neighbour’s house and stayed overnight. My family thought I had been taken away and chopped up or something. The next morning, I returned home and learnt that my 14 year-old cousin and sister-in-law were raped. My cousin was quickly married off to an old man by my auntie.

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And was there any other encounter with Japanese? How were they like?Yes, I worked in the hospital. The Japanese, even those belonging to the military, were all right. And those Japanese customers, whom I served when I was a salesgirl, were very nice too. Basically, they were nice people. They were said to be bad just because of the war. I didn’t have any other unpleasant encounter with the Japanese, except for that rape incident.

Did you find that the Japanese treated the different races differently?

The Japanese only find trouble with the Chinese. They know the Chinese were against them, like the anti-Japanese volunteers. That’s why they only drove the Chinese out for the registration, not the Malays and Indians. In fact, the Malays and the Indians came and loot. The Japanese didn’t bother the other races. My neighbours were all Malays. They thought we are also Malay. That’s why the Japanese didn’t come to my house to take my father and brother to the registration. Like I told you just now, I ran to my Malay neighbour’s house to hide from the Japanese. The Japanese wouldn’t disturb the Malays.

Was there any other significant incident you witnessed during the Occupation?

No, but I have heard. When they first came, they hated the Chinese. We heard they threw babies and killed them with the bayonet and slashed pregnant women. Men were rounded up on pretext of giving them jobs, but they were shot and killed instead.

Surrender of Japanese:

What can you remember about the surrender of the Japanese?

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That day was like everyday. Everyone talked about the surrender. I was relieved and happy that the British were finally returning. But there were people who earned so much banana money that they committed suicide when the Japanese surrender.

Finally, what have you learnt from the 3-½ years of Japanese Occupation?War is not good as the innocents suffer. We must appreciate simple things that we have, like food. I always tell my grandchildren not to waste food. We must also treasure most importantly, peace. Don’t take peace for granted, especially for the young people who have never been through war. And now when we hear other countries having war, we must help them.

I give permission for this work to be digitally stored and made available by NIE for educational and research purposes.

Name: Rita GuptaSignature:

Preferred Contact: 94872587Date: 18th October 2003

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